


First Inversion

by Zhie



Series: Silmarillion-Hogwarts Mash-up [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Fluff and Crack, M/M, Self-Insert, characters as animals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:55:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22978003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zhie/pseuds/Zhie
Summary: Felagund is teaching himself some new musical magic.  Edrahil just wants to eat nachos and watch quidditch. Shenanigans ensue.
Relationships: Edrahil/Finrod Felagund | Findaráto, Erestor/Glorfindel (Tolkien)
Series: Silmarillion-Hogwarts Mash-up [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1651846
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7
Collections: Back to Middle-earth Month 2020: Endings and Beginnings





	First Inversion

**Author's Note:**

> This story fulfills a handful of prompts.
> 
> B2MEM Prompt: 
> 
> March 1: He was interested in roots and beginnings… (The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, Chapter 2)
> 
> Crackuary Prompts:
> 
> B1: rap songs or battles gone horribly wrong (or right! Finrod learned it somewhere!)  
> I1: in a modern school or workplace  
> N1: 13 going on 30  
> G1: self-insert  
> O1: characters are animals
> 
> Thanks to Kaylee and Flora for suggestions on houses and other tidbits!

“What are those?” 

“Nachos,” replied Edrahil. He was holding a tray of food. “Want some?” he asked as he held it out to Felagund.

Felagund looked up from the scattered sheets of music strewn over the table set up in the corner where Felagund did most of his work. “You are such a muggle,” he said, though it was laced with the affection of a Hufflepuff, not the accusational tone a Slytherin might offer. He shook his head. “I think I figured something out.”

Edrahil pulled the chair from Glorfindel’s desk over. His own chair was draped with dirty laundry and stacked with books he had not opened since the last time it was required of him in class. He kept the nachos in his lap. “Want to go watch the quidditch game later?” 

“Not until I finish this.” Felagund bowed his head over his notes once again.

Edrahil leaned over to see what was going on. As he crunched on his nachos, Felagund wrote out several lines of music. Since it was wizarding musical paper, the notes would sing out as he drew them on the page. When he picked up his wand and waved it across the staff, the chords played in succession. “What is it?” Edrahil finally asked.

“Professor Flitwick told me about the chords of power that are used in song battles, but he said I was too young for him to teach me more about them. Something about how I am still just a boy, and I need to finish my studies before I start thinking about war ballads, and I am not thirteen going on thirty.” Felagund set the page he finished aside and placed a new sheet on the center of the desk.

“Rough time, that. Nacho?” asked Edrahil again, holding out the tray. When Felagund wrinkled his nose, Edrahil laughed. “We can’t all be purebloods, now, can we. You should give them a go.”

Felagund daintily took a sample from the tray Edrahil held. They were quite different, as far as best friends went. Felagund came from one of the foremost wizarding families, and he and all of his cousins, and all of their parents, and their parents’ parents, had all come to Hogwarts. They were some of the most lauded alumni, and star pupils. (Though the number of House Points Celegorm had lost that year for Slytherin House cast shadow on some of those claims.) As for Felagund, he often had his hand up first, knew all of the answers on exams, and even managed a compliment (of sorts) from Professor Snape (who simply said ‘at least one person here is not a complete idiot’.) Felagund nibbled on the nacho and finished it off with his tea. “It is interesting,” he finally said.

Edrahil grinned. Edrahil, on the other hand (Eddy, to most of his friends), was the first in his family to receive a Hogwarts invitation. Perhaps there had been someone far in his past who had been a witch or wizard, but no other family members were magic users, and Hogwarts had been very new and exciting and he simply stood and stared into windows of shops in Diagon Alley on his first visit. That was how the two had met--Edrahil staring at the wonders in the window of Olivander’s while Felagund and his proud father exited the shop with a brand new eleven and three-quarters phoenix-feather infused wand made of birch. Felagund’s father, noticing the boy standing all alone outside the wand shop invited Edrahil to come along with them to go shopping. Felagund and Edrahil had been nearly inseparable since, and being sorted into Hufflepuff was a delight to them both.

Felagund guided Edrahil through the wizarding world, while Edrahil introduced Felagund to things like nachos, Nintendo, and Ribena, which Edrahil smuggled in ever since his second year. During the break, Felagund would come to Christmas at Edrahil’s house, and Edrahil (whose family was under the impression he had earned a scholarship to an exclusive boys boarding school) stayed with Felagund’s family for the summers. 

“So, whatcha think? Quidditch today? Us against Ravenclaw,” persisted Edrahil.

“Oh, that’s where Beleg is,” Felagund realized. Beleg was a Chaser for Hufflepuff, and quite good. “Maybe. I just really wanted to finish this.” Felagund waved his wand over the page again and it sang out. “See, if Professor Flitwick refuses to teach me, then I’ll just teach myself.”

“Oh. You know what Professor McGonagall says about all that,” warned Edrahil. “You don’t want to end up in her office like Celegorm and Mairon do all the time.”

“I only want to be useful. Professor Flitwick says that charms and divination and all that are well and good, and defending against the dark arts is important, too, but some day, we might need to rally and fight against…” Felagund dropped his voice. “You know who,” he whispered.

Edrahil nodded as Felagund spoke, but as soon as he was done, he began to shake his head the other way and whispered back, “Yeah, no, not really, I have no historical knowledge of all the fiddle faddle about ‘Voldy’ that all of you--”

“Shhhh!” hissed Felagund. “Do not speak his name--not even in jest!”

“Uh-huh.” Edrahil ate more of the nachos, and just as Felagund returned to his work, said, “Voldy-Voldy-Voldy--see, nothing happened,” he said as Felagund groaned and rubbed his head. 

“But it could--it might--my family talks in secret about how he still has followers out there, and everyone needs to be on guard. I want to do more than guard--if something happens, I want to be able to fight,” Felagund said firmly. “This is what will let me do that.” He turned the page slightly. “So, these are chords of power. I have been studying the roots of the chords and we all know what major chords sound like.”

“Do we, though?” teased Edrahil.

“Alright, then, listen.” Felagund tapped his wand on the first chord. “G major. Sounds good, right?”

“Yup,” agreed Edrahil.

“Now, G minor. See the difference?”

“Sounds creepy,” Edrahil said.

“So, you can play a chord on an instrument that lets you play multiple notes at the same time--like a guitar--or you can have three people sing it. What I want to do is figure out how to use charms to sing the chord on my own.”

“Three notes at the same time,” said Edrahil, just to make sure he was following.

“Exactly. But on top of that, there are charms to make the chords more powerful. I read books as a child about witches and wizards defeating horrible creatures with music. A single note will not do it, but chords have power to them. They can be triangulated. Two notes only make a straight line; three notes can assault on all sides.” Felagund lowered his wand from the page and stopped making the notes on it sing. “Does any of this make sense?”

“It sort of does,” said Edrahil. “So, you are writing battle music?”

“Trying to. I was experimenting earlier. Here, watch,” said Felagund. He cleared a space on the table and set a metal cup there. “First, I have to direct the spell at that cup,” he said with a flick of his wrist. “And then, I have to ‘feed’ the music through the spell, at the cup.” The tip of the wand was traced over the first line of the page of music, and at the end, a burst of energy caused the cup to fall over.”

“So, just impact spells? There have to be at least a dozen you could use that would be quicker,” Edrahil said. 

“But there is another effect to using a song of power,” said Felagund. “Because the charm is used as a carrier of something else, if someone checks the wand, no one really knows quite what it was used for. Second, music has healing properties, too. Ever wonder why Professor Flitwick is a doctor, too? He can heal people with music. So the healing chords can be used as part of the song, and if played in the correct order, one can deal damage, counter with a deflect, and play healing chords that transfer to the caster.”

“Alright, this is fascinating now,” admitted Edrahil, who set the mostly eaten tray of nachos aside on his own desk and returned to see what else Felagund had on the paper. “What does this one do?” he asked, pointing to another sheet of music.

“This is another experiment. I want to see if two people could sing the notes in different tones--so, like, treble clef and bass clef, here--and do more damage, or, if not damage, an attack at the same time.” Felagund hurried to finish filling in the notes on the staff. “Ideally, one should sing them, learn how to stack the charms with the carrier of the spell and the duplication of the voice, so that the sheets of music need not be relied upon. It would be useless if one does not have the music with them, or if it was destroyed in battle. Cumbersome, too.”

Edrahil nodded. “Do you want me to help you try it?” he asked. He was already retrieving his wand.

“That was what I was hoping. I just intended to finish it and then ask. If I have this correct, it should turn the cup into a puppy, and then rejuvenate us after the spell. And then, we can go to the quidditch game,” added Felagund. He shifted his chair so that Edrahil could move Glorfindel’s chair and sit closer to Felagund.

“Just tell me what to do,” said Edrahil.

Felagund instructed Edrahil in the order of the charms, and how to cause the notes to sing out on the page. When Edrahil felt comfortable with the incantations, and after a few practice rounds of making the cup simply fall over, the pair readied their wands and excitedly played through the entire page of music. At the end, a small flash of light hit the cup, but another, more powerful flash blinded them both for a moment and caused them to fall backwards and out of their chairs. 

“Eddy! Are you okay?”

“Whoa. That was--oh! Oh… oh, boy.”

Felagund sat up--and immediately saw the problem. “Uh...oh, boy.”

“At least we can agree on that.” Edrahil turned his head after sitting up as well. “So...this wears off, right?”

“I thought this could only happen with...polyjuice potion, or…or with animagus...oh, dear.” Felagund started to pace the room on all four paws. The charms and music had not done much to the cup, other than leave it looking shinier and newer than it had that morning. Both he and Edrahil, however, were now sporting the appearance of wolves. “We will be expelled for sure!”

“Maybe it wears off. A lot of things wear off,” Edrahil reminded him. “Do you want more nachos?” he asked as he padded to the tray on the desk.

“What? No! Oh, I am sure to get a howler from my father over this!” fretted Felagund as Edrahil balanced on his hind legs to get one foot on the desk and stick his muzzle into the nacho tray. “Maybe I can try to cast something to reverse this,” Felagund considered out loud, and he tried to grasp his wand from the floor, but with such sizable paws, it was to no avail.

Edrahl’s ears suddenly perked up. “I think I hear Glorfindel out there. Maybe he can help us fix this.”

“By Merlin’s beard, no! I do not want anyone else involved! We have to hide!” insisted Felagund, and he scrambled under one of the beds. “Eddy! Come on! Get under here!”

Edrahil, who was licking cheese and guacamole from the tray, picked it up in his teeth and took it under his own bed just as the door opened. Glorfindel entered, but Beleg was with him. 

“Weird--I thought I heard barking.” Edrahil looked around. “I guess Felagund and Edrahil decided to go to the game after all.” He leaned against the doorway. “Is it here, or did you leave it in the library again?”

“I had it since the last time I was lurking in the library-- ah, there it is!” Glorfindel exclaimed as he walked over to his black and yellow striped scarf. “Now we can go.”

“Perish the thought of you being at a game without your lucky scarf,” teased Beleg as Glorfindel happily wrapped the knitted wool around his neck. “Are we stopping at the Ravenclaw corridor to pick up your quiet little friend?”

“No, Erestor is going to meet me at the game,” Glorfindel said, words spoken with a smile. “We are going to sit in our own sections, but right across the aisle from one another so we can hold hands.”

“You two are adora--” Beleg suddenly stopped as something caught his eye. “What is that?” Beleg asked, pointing his broom at the wagging tail that stuck out from the bed that Edrahil was under.

Glorfindel looked, and stepped backwards. “I know what it looks like,” he whispered. “Probably someone from Slytherin House, playing a trick again. Probably Celegorm,” added Glorfindel. “We should get a professor.”

“No! Do not get a professor!” called out Felagund, but all Glorfindel and Beleg heard was barking, and soon the door was shut--and something large was shoved in front of the door. “Oh, no! Now we cannot even get out!” bemoaned Felagund as he crawled out from under the bed.

Edrahil joined him a moment later. “We were stuck here either way,” he reasoned. He pawed at the doorknob. “No opposable thumbs,” he said. 

“This is bad,” whimpered Felagund. “This is so bad. None of them can understand us, even though we can understand each other. We might be mistaken for real wolves by the professor--they might cast a petrification spell on us!” 

“Doubtful,” said Edrahil.

“I wish I had your optimism, Eddy, but this might be the end for us!” worried Felagund. He started to pace again. “Eddy, in case we do not make it out of this--there is something I think you should know.”

“You hate Ribena,” guessed Edrahil.

“What? No. Well, actually, yes. It tastes like what Madam Pomfrey gives people when they have the sniffles,” admitted Felagund. He circled around and sat down beside Edrahil. Both were facing the closed door. “I never told you this, but last year, at the yule ball, when you danced with Amarië--”

“You wanted to dance with her?”

Felagund tucked his tail around him and looked down and away. “No, Eddy. I wanted to dance with you.”

“Really?” Edrahil rested his chin on the back of Felagund’s neck. “I wanted to dance with you, too,” he admitted. “I only danced with Amarië because she talks about you all the time and it was the next best thing to dancing with you.”

“If we ever get out of this, Eddy, do you...do you want to go to the quidditch game with me?”

“Can we hold hands like Glorfindel and Erestor do?” Edrahil asked.

“Yeah, and we won’t even have to sit across the aisle to do it,” Felagund answered.

“Smashing. It’s a date,” Edrahil replied. 

It was then that they heard the heavy object being moved away from the door. Both sat up straight and awaited their unknown fate. 

“Oh, honestly,” were the first words spoken by the Professor at the door. “I swear that job offer from Beauxbatons is looking better every day,” she said under her breath.

“Professor Zhie--are they real wolves?” questioned Glorfindel from behind her.

“Most unlikely,” replied the Professor. “Alright. You three, out, shoo, you’ve a game to go to, Beleg, take these two with you,” she insisted, for Beleg, Glorfindel, and Erestor were all huddled behind the Professor. Beleg herded the other two away, with Professor Zhie calling to them, “And not a word of this to anyone--I will know if you said anything. I will speak to Dumbledore of this myself.” She closed the door immediately after and shook her head. “Now, let’s see… a musical spell, it seems.” 

She walked to the table and looked over the sheets of music arranged there. Edrahil followed and wagged his tail; Felagund laid down on the floor and whined. “None of that, thank you, Mister Finarfinion.”

“How does she know who I am?” Felagund asked Edrahil.

Edrahil looked over his shoulder. “Well, most of our clothing ripped and tore off, but you still have your tie on with your prefect pin. I was trying to explain earlier.”

Felagund only now realized that indeed, since he had loosened his tie while working, it had not suffered the ill fate of the rest of what he had on. “Oh, well, that is very good, then. Very good, indeed.”

“Hush, both of you. If you expect me to concentrate, you must cease your barking,” scolded the Professor. She returned to the sheets of music. “Now, then, it seems you misjudged where to place the deflection chords, and everything you wanted to have happen to this poor, defenseless cup bounced right back. Need I remind you both--dogs are not allowed as pets. Only owls, cats, and toads are permitted. You would do well to remember this in the future, and not to attempt any charms which would result in a canine companion.”

The Professor turned around and removed her wand from her sleeve. “Now, hold very still.” She recited a brief incantation which changed Edrahil back into his natural state, and a moment later, did the same for Felagund. “There, now. Both of you will tidy up this room and make yourselves presentable, and then come to the library. There will be no quidditch game in your future this evening--there is a stone floor that needs to be scrubbed. And Mister Finarfinion--if you insist upon using musical spells, you will come to me for private lessons on the matter. While Professor Flitwick may not deem you ready yet, I would prefer you know what you are doing before you simply do it.”

With great relief, both boys did exactly as they were told. The room had never been neater, and the floor in the library had never been more spotless. “Some date this is,” joked Edrahil, for he and Felagund had remained silent for most of the evening. They could hear the sounds of the quidditch matches outside, but the presence of Madam Pince kept them silent. She left to have supper, reminding them to scrub the corners well before she left. 

Felagund dipped his brush into the soapy water with a thoughtful look. With one hand he scrubbed the grout between the stones, but with the other, he brushed his fingers over Edrahil’s hand. 

An hour later, Dumbledore found them at the very back of the library, each scrubbing with one hand while the other two were entwined. “Ah, to be young and in love again,” he mused, which made both of them turn around and stand up to formally greet the Headmaster. “This job looks more than sufficiently done,” he said in his low, calm voice. “And I trust our lesson was learned?”

“Yes, Headmaster,” they both said simultaneously.

“Off you go, then,” directed Dumbledore. “Hufflepuff won the game today, though the snitch seems to have taken a nap in a hole in the ground. Very peculiar,” he remarked. “All the same, there is celebration in the Hufflepuff common room--I heard there were nachos.”

Both boys smirked at one another, and then Edrahil grabbed hold of Felagund’s hand, and the pair ran out of the room, headed for the celebration together.

Maybe there would even be dancing tonight. At the very least, there would be nachos. 

**Author's Note:**

> First Inversion has a double meaning. It can either refer to Felagund's first attempt at inverting something with the spell he is casting, or a type of musical chord. In my imaginings of this, first inversion major chords would be the chords with healing properties.


End file.
